David Lake (1943 – October 5, 2009) was a

Washington wine Washington wine is a wine produced from grape varieties grown in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Washington ranks second in the American wine, United States (behind California wine, California) in the production of wine. By 2017 ...

maker and

Master of Wine Master of Wine (MW) is a qualification (not an academic degree) issued by The Institute of Masters of Wine in the United Kingdom. The MW qualification is generally regarded in the wine industry as one of the highest standards of professional knowle ...

.K. Watson '
Noted vintner David Lake passes away Monday in Issaquah after a lengthy illness
"'' ''Issaquah Herald'' October 7, 2009 Born in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

parents, Lake started in the wine industry working for a British wholesaler. In 1975 he earned his Master of Wine certification before traveling to the United States to enroll into the

enology Oenology (also enology; ) is the science and study of wine and winemaking. Oenology is distinct from viticulture, which is the science of the growing, cultivation, and harvesting of grapes. The English word oenology derives from the Greek word ' ...

program of

University of California-Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

. In 1978 he accepted a position of enologist with the Washington winery Associated Vintners (later renamed

Columbia Winery Columbia Winery is a Washington (U.S. state), Washington state winery located in Woodinville, Washington. The winery is currently owned by E & J Gallo Winery. The winery was founded in 1962 as Associated Vinters by several former professors at th ...

) where he soon rose to the position of chief winemaker. Among Lake's accomplishments was releasing Washington's first

single vineyard designated wine A vineyard designated wine is a wine produced from the product of a single vineyard with that vineyard's name appearing on the wine label. Throughout the history of winemaking and viticulture, the differences in quality between one plot of land ...

s and making the states first

Cabernet franc Cabernet Franc is one of the major black grape varieties worldwide. It is principally grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone, as in the Loire's Chinon. In addition to being us ...

Syrah Syrah (), also known as Shiraz, is a dark-skinned grape variety grown throughout the world and used primarily to produce red wine. In 1999, Syrah was found to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France, Dureza and Mondeuse B ...

and

Pinot gris Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio (, ) or Grauburgunder is a white wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot Noir variety, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name, but the gra ...

wines.H. Steiman '
Longtime Columbia Winemaker David Lake Retires
'' ''Wine Spectator'' October 17, 2006 He was the first US winemaker to hold a Master of Wine accreditation.

Career

After working in the British wholesale wine industry, David Lake earned his Master of Wine accreditation in 1975. He moved to the west coast of the United States where he enrolled in the enology program at the University of California, Davis. Upon completion of his studies, Lake spent a brief time in the

Dundee Hills AVA The Dundee Hills AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Yamhill County, Oregon. It is entirely contained within the Willamette Valley AVA, and is approximately southwest of Portland, near the towns of Dundee and Dayton. The area is i ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

working for

Eyrie Vineyards The Eyrie Vineyards is an American winery in Oregon that consists of in five different vineyards in the Dundee Hills AVA of the Willamette Valley. In 1965, against the advice of his viticultural professors at the University of California, Davis, ...

under winemaker

David Lett David Lett (1939 – October 9, 2008) was the founder and winemaker for The Eyrie Vineyards in the U.S. state of Oregon. He was a pioneer in the Oregon wine industry. Lett grew up on a farm in Holladay, Utah earned a degree in philosophy and pre ...

. He also worked briefly in the

Eola-Amity Hills AVA The Eola-Amity Hills AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Polk County and Yamhill County, Oregon. It is entirely contained within the Willamette Valley AVA, and stretches from the city of Amity in the north to Salem in the south. ...

for

Bethel Heights Vineyard Bethel Heights Vineyard is an Oregon winery in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA of the Willamette Valley. Founded in 1977 by twin brothers Ted and Terry Casteel, their wives Pat Dudley and Marilyn Webb, and Pat's sister Barbara Dudley, the vineyard was o ...

and Amity Vineyards.H. Goldberg '
David Lake MW dies
"'' ''Decanter Magazine'', October 7th 2009 From there he joined the

Woodinville Woodinville is a city in King County, Washington, United States. It is a part of the Seattle metropolitan area. There is also a much larger population with Woodinville mailing addresses in adjacent unincorporated areas of King ( Cottage Lake) and ...

-based winery of Associated Vintners (soon to be known as Columbia Winery).A. Perdue '
Washington wine pioneer Lake dies at 66
'' Seattle Times, October 11, 2009 In the early 1980s, Lake pioneered the practice of producing vineyard designated wines when he released

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebanon' ...

from the Yakima Valley vineyards of Otis, Red Willow and Sagemoor. Working with

Mike Sauer Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and documenta ...

, owner and lead

viticulturalist Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

of the Red Willow Vineyard, Lake encouraged the plantings of the first Syrah vines in Washington. Noting similarities between the Red Willow vineyard and the La Chapelle vineyard of the

Hermitage AOC Hermitage is a French wine ''Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée'' (AOC) in the northern Rhône wine region of France south of Lyon. It produces mostly red wine from the Syrah grape; however, small quantities of white wine are also produced fro ...

in Rhone, Lake arranged for Syrah cuttings to be imported into the state and produced Washington's first Syrah in 1988. By 2009, Syrah would grow to be the third most widely planted red wine

grape variety This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see Viti ...

in Washington State. Shiraz Grapes

Through his career, David Lake would promote or pioneer Washington production of a wide range of grape varieties including

Merlot Merlot is a dark blue–colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name ''Merlot'' is thought to be a diminutive of ''merle'', the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the ...

Viognier Viognier () is a white wine grape variety. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu in the Rhône Valley.J. Robinson ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 754 Oxford University Press 2006 Outside of the Rhôn ...

, Pinot gris and Cabernet franc. Among his many accomplishments, he was the first in Washington to blend Merlot and Cabernet Franc in a style similar to the

Right bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

. David Lake's winemaking style was often described by wine experts, such as writer

Paul Gregutt Paul Gregutt is an American wine writer whose focus is the wine of Oregon and Washington. Gregutt publishes a column titled "Wine Adviser" in ''The Seattle Times'', and contributes to publications such as ''Vineyard & Winery Management'', ''Yakima ...

, as "

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

"-producing wines with moderate oak influence and

alcohol levels Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...

Illness and death

Following the 2005 vintage, David Lake began to experience a variety of health problems, including back issues that required surgery, that prompted his retirement from Columbia Winery. After battles with

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...

and

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

, Lake collapsed in his

Issaquah, Washington Issaquah ( ) is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 40,051 at the 2020 census. Located in a valley and bisected by Interstate 90, the city is bordered by the Sammamish Plateau to the north and the "Issaquah Alp ...

home on October 5, 2009 and died hours later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lake, David Masters of Wine American winemakers Washington (state) wine University of California, Davis alumni 1943 births 2009 deaths People from Issaquah, Washington